#120 Buck Tradition With Unconventional Program Strategy
I’m ~out of office~ for a long weekend, so I’m writing this on Thursday while I fly to Punta Cana for a family wedding.
I always find myself feeling full of gratitude on a flight — grateful to work from anywhere, to constantly fill my cup with inspiration, and to have friends all over the world.
Maybe it’s the gratitude buzz, but I really wanted to share some amazing strategies that my friend Adrian is using in her program… but that requires me opening up about something “taboo”…
My problems with money.
Let’s get into it –
I joined my friend Adrian’s program (that she’s co-hosting), and I think they are doing some really unique things with their program that I haven’t seen before (+ some amazing best practices) and so I wanted to share what I’m loving about it.
Before I dive in, here’s the gist of the program … which requires me to open up about something I struggle with — holding on to money. 🙈
No matter how much money I make, whether it was my $40k architect salary or now hundreds of thousands of dollars… I have always struggled to save or invest. Money comes in, and it freaking flies out.
💸 👈🏼 my money flying away.
Lately with some big successes in business, I’ve found myself in the same situations I’ve been in when I was working 3 jobs & picking up bartending shifts like my life depended on it.
Wtf right??
So I realized I need to do something about this because it’s clearly a brain wiring thing. I’m not an idiot.
I know all the personal finance best practice whatever, but it doesn’t matter. I still fall back into my bad habits and patterns that don’t serve me or my family.
SO I decided to invest in a money energetics program — I know it sounds counter intuitive, but I can already tell you halfway through the program that it’s changing my life.
Now to the program details…
Positioning:
Positioning is the hardest thing to get right & I think they’ve done a really great job and crafted a truly unique offer.
This isn’t money manifestation. This isn’t personal finance. This is money energetics.
… which they made super clear in the positioning.
Not only that, but it was positioned as a series of 4 masterclasses — not a group program or a community experience (even though that’s what it is).
People want to be better with money… privately. It’s not a comfortable thing to discuss or do with others… so positioning as a community experience isn’t the move. Community, in this case, is something you delight with later (which they have).
Sometimes you have to position your products as what your audience wants and then give them what they need.
BUT (!!!!!)
You still need to be honest and clear. It was very clear that these were live classes others would be attending — so it wasn’t a bait and switch in any way.
It’s important that value perception is equal or less than the value experience. It has to live up to what they expected … and ideally, it exceeds expectations.
Pricing
They had two prices on the sales page that align with the program content itself… money energetics and value exchange.
You could purchase the program for 50% the full price, simply by agreeing to provide a testimonial within 24 hours of each class.
They position it as a testimonial, but it’s really a feedback & progress questionnaire which you acknowledge can be used as a testimonial. I think it’s important to note the difference because this is an ethical approach.
I don’t know how many people chose this option, but I would assume the majority… which means they’re collecting a ton of data to make the program better as it goes on.
You know what I love about this?
It ensures co-creation of a new program experience (see best practices below).
There’s a price anchor to make it a no brainer.
The pricing table from the money energetics sales page
Timeline:
This masterclass series is scheduled for random dates over the course of 2 months.
This is a four session series (which is a program), but it’s not a specific time-based program. Meaning they’re not calling it a “4 week program,” even though it’s 4 calls.
I love this because this work is DEEP, and there is homework which means there is plenty of time to integrate.
Integrating AI
Adrian & Joss realize that education and all of the hard work students are doing with journaling and reflection could be made exponentially stronger with AI.
So in the first session, they encouraged us to build a money coach as we go through the program so we could talk out our notes with our virtual money coach.
They gave us prompts and talked about how to use it — but it was just a suggestion and quick recommendation, not the whole show.
Best practices they’re crushing:
Co-creation — They’re using the feedback forms to inform the next session. From the first session, they collected the main emotions and pain points students associated with their money relationships and used that to craft the second session.
Sending reminders — Sounds obvious, but the live experience is where it’s at, and they send a 24 hour reminder and a 1 hour reminder that literally just had the date, time, and Zoom link.
Surprise & delight — At both sessions so far, they’ve delighted their students with more benefits. The AI money coach was a super fun surprise, and in the second session, they had a WhatsApp community chat available to join, and they teased a resource they’re giving us in the next class.
Times & dates of calls — These were clear on the sales page & social content. No wondering if you’ll be able to make the live sessions. And it was clear you’d get access to the replays. Don’t gate keep this info, it’s bad marketing.
When you set the bar at just what’s needed to make a purchase decision and then you over deliver on value and experience, your programs will THRIVE. Because when we’re blown away we share.
I mean... I just wrote a whole newsletter about it airing my dirty laundry 🤣.
Blow your community away, and it’s a lot easier to grow your business.
I can’t wait to see how they wrap it up and where it takes me! I’ll follow up with you in a late August issue.
If you loved this, you can subscribe to the weekly newsletter here for free! I send a bunch of resources & share a bts happenings of my business in the email version.